


Survive [One-Shot]

by JinxyTwinxyDoo



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Frostbite, Hypothermia, Irondad, Near Death Experiences, blizzard, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26095603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JinxyTwinxyDoo/pseuds/JinxyTwinxyDoo
Summary: A “not very smart” decision on Peter’s half leaves the boy stranded in Syria with an unconscious Tony Stark. With a blizzard rolling in and no where safe to stay, he’s forced to head down the mountain towards a road he thinks he saw.
Relationships: Peter Parker and Tony Stark, Tony Stark and Peter Parker
Comments: 2
Kudos: 80





	Survive [One-Shot]

____

He comes to slowly. Vaguely, he can hear a voice distantly calling out. The words don’t form correctly, coming out garbled and muffled as he blinks his eyes slowly. His skin tingles. His entire body is pins and needles. He blinks away, trying to forge his vision to focus on anything. There’s gray and... white. It hurts to look at, so he closes his eyes again for just a moment.

“Mister Stark!”

The voice sounds again and he forces his eyes open a little. There’s a new color present. Red... red and... black. Then there’s more... it’s brown and pale. There are hands by his neck and fingers jab into his throat. He grunts, blinking slowly again and raising a hand to wave the person’s fingers away. The person speaks again, much clearer this time.

“Oh thank god! I— I thought I was— I thought I’d have to tell Happy that you were dead!”

Dead? He snorted, blinking again as he forced his vision to clear up some more. “Takes more than two old guys to take me down.” He blinked again, his gaze drifting over to the figure. It takes him a moment to recognize their face. Pale skin. Curly brown hair. Doe brown eyes. The realization hits him like a train and he’s suddenly bolting upright.

“Peter! What are you doing here?”

Peter startles, jolting backwards with wide eyes. “I-I snuck on the quinjet that mister Rogers and that guy with the metal stole! I-I followed them here and...” he frowned, his gaze darkening. “Mister Stark, they hurt you. They hurt you real bad!” Tony rolled his eyes, waving a hand at Peter. “I’m fine. Just... needed a moment.” A moment. A moment to lay down and let darkness consume him forever.

Peter shook his head. “You can’t do that! There’s— there’s a blizzard coming! We need to get you somewhere safe.” Safe? He snorts a little yet again, slowly shifting. He looks around and notices Steve’s shield laying a few feet away, a few scratch marks still in it. He purses his lips and looks back at Peter before moving a hand forward and beckoning him forward. “C’mere. Help me up.”

Peter nods a few times, muttering a few “okay’s” to which Tony mutters back “stop saying okay.” He just gets another “okay” in response as Peter shifts to his side, sliding under Tony’s left arm and slowly helping him to his feet. For a moment, Tony wavers unsteadily on his legs. His head spins and he fears that the ground is about to rush to meet his face. A moment later, the dizziness recedes and he motions towards the few bars poking out of the wall. “There. Gotta climb out.” 

Peter nods a few times, slowly guiding Tony over quietly. The silence is frightening, but Tony simply assumes he’s shocked. He’d watched his idol get thrown around, almost win, and then almost get killed. Well, he was left to die. He shakes the thought aside as he pushes himself away from Peter, slowly leaning against the wall and grabbing the metal poles. Peter scrambles up the little wall, stopping half-way up and extending a hand.

Tony eyes the hand for a moment before shaking his head, swiping it away as he grabs the little bars. He manages to shakily heave himself up the ladder before he needs Peter’s help to stand again. He grunts as he’s helped you again, inhaling through his teeth. “So where do you plan on taking us, huh?”

“Well I think there’s a road down this mountain.”

Getting outside was easy. A few moments of Tony stumbling and leaning against a wall or two were the only bumps in the road along the way. A stumble and a limp here and there, but getting outside was no problem.

Walking through the snow, wind, and cold was not. His suit was adding enough weight as it was. Trudging through the snow was making it harder. He kept his gaze trained on the ground, watching as the snow briefly turned bright pink when a droplet of blood dripped down from his forehead. A shiver coiled down Tony’s spine, earning a shiver from the man. There was no point in wearing the suit. It was just adding more weight, anyways. Besides, it’s systems were mostly offline. There was no point in trying to fix it until they got somewhere safe, anyways. And he highly doubted that wherever they got would have the right materials.

“I’m gonna get out of the suit.”

“What? You can’t do that!” Peter shook his head, stopping as Tony stopped besides him. “It’s not doing us any help. If anything, it’s making this whole thing harder than it needs to be. Work smarter, Pete, not harder.” He pursed his lips, rolling his eyes upward to look at the sky before shifting. A moment later, the suit was receding around him. At the same time the weight was lifted, it felt like every muscle in his body had been cut. He couldn’t push back the wave of dizziness that swept over him this time.

He was vaguely aware of a sharply cry as he plunged forward into the snow.

___

Peter lurched forward to catch Tony’s limp figure. He hooked one arm under his chest and wrapped the other around his back, his eyes widening. “Mister Stark? Mister Stark! Are you okay?” He dropped to his knees in the snow, ignoring the cold that stabbed at him through his suit. He should’ve thought this through better. 

Grimacing, he rolled Tony onto his back. His eyes were closed and his face was lax, but his skin was undeniably pale and his lips turning blue. Trembling, Peter moved a hand forward and hesitantly opened one of Tony’s eyes, which had rolled far back into his head. Shivering, Peter pulled his hand back to himself and nodded. “Okay… okay. I got this.” He nodded shakily, slowly grabbing Tony’s left arm.

With a grunt, he gave a jerk and rotated his body to try and heave Tony onto his body. The sudden weight pushed him down into the snow and his body spasmed with a jolt as his face was shoved into the snow. He sputtered, raising his head as he slowly readjusted Tony’s position. He swung the man’s limp arms over his shoulders, holding onto his thighs just above his knees. With a strain, he slowly pushed himself to his feet.

Super-strength or not, it felt like his body was locking up from the cold. He stumbled once he was on his feet, nodding shakily. Tony’s chin was rested on the crook of his neck, his head lolled to the side limply at an angle that had to hurt. Peter gave a little hop, jeering his body to the left to fix that. After doing so, he inhaled and exhaled through chattering teeth before beginning to slowly stumble through the snow.

Dragging his feet through the snow was painful. The cold stabbed at his body like tiny shards of ice. His body stung from the cold, earning shivers that wracked his small body. 

He quickly discovered that his suit had a built in heater, internal and external. Of course, that had come on but he had somehow directed most of the heat to be external in hopes of keeping Tony warm. He was enhanced; Tony was not. He could handle more cold than Tony could! He shook his head, closing his eyes as a cold gust of wind battered his face and body. 

He’d be stumbling forward blindly for only a little bit, but he had made considerable progress. The battered and broken suit remained a dot about the size of his thumb nail in the distance, giving him some sort of hope. But that hope didn’t exist without dread. The sky overhead was darkening, signifying either the blizzard he had been informed of or that night was coming. Neither were good and they had no shelter.

He clenched his jaw, blinking his eyes furiously against a gust of wind that brought tears to his exposed eyes. He had to keep pushing. So step after trembling step, he continued to march forward through the snow. Down the mountain until he could no longer ignore the warning signs of the new cold. The wind was picking up and small dots were falling around him, swirling in the air and landing on hsi and Tony’s hair. Usually he would’ve been fine and excited because of this. In any other situation, he enjoyed the snow. But this? This he did not like.

Peter hung his head low, pushing his feet through the snow more. He had to find shelter… he had to find something. Anything would work! He clenched his jaw, panic bubbling in his chest. Tony still hadn’t responded. The billionaire hadn’t moved a muscle, laying unresponsive on his back deadweight. 

“We’re gonna be okay, mister Stark,” Peter murmured. He wasn’t sure if he was saying that to the unconscious man or himself. “I’m gonna find us a shelter and we’ll warm up.” Even with the suit’s heater, it wouldn’t do much to keep them both warm. It’d eventually die out eventually. He was just glad that a few skinny trees were near where he was. But he still couldn’t find any shelter. He shook his head slowly, staggering to the left before steadying himself.

Shelter. Shelter. Shelter.

His senses tore at his right and he whirled in that direction, blinking his eyes furiously at the stone wall he was met with. Or… no… there was a cave! He let out a little cry as he staggered forward towards the dark cave, his body leaning forward so much that he thought he’d topple forward. 

The stone was ice cold, but not as cold as the snow. He staggered into the cave a few steps before his knees buckled as he fell to the ground. Tony’s body rolled out besides him, still unresponsive and dead to the world. A stuttering breath left Peter as he pushed himself upright. Wood. They needed wood. He glanced back at Tony, trembling. “I-I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t expect a response and didn’t get one. Inhaling and exhaling, Peter slowly crawled back towards the cave entrance before pulling himself to the feet. The sky had darkened considerably and wind was howling overhead, bringing a shrill noise that hurt Peter’s ears. He grimaced before creeping forward and out of the cave. He didn’t need to walk far until he came across a scrawny tree that would make some sort of fire.

With trembling, almost unmoving fingers, he forced himself to break off a few twigs and thick pieces of bark before retreating back into the cave. He was glad it was small and ended quickly, or else he’d worry about a bear or something creeping out of the darkness. He stumbled forward a bit more before falling to his knees by Tony, nodding shakily. “I-I got us some wood.”

His voice was hoarse and his teeth chattered constantly. He was cold. So, so cold. But he had to do some more. He nudged the wood into a small pile before grabbing two different sticks. They were cold, but not frozen or wet. So he hoped— he begged and prayed to any god that this would work. He grit his teeth as he pressed his palms together around one stick, holding the other in place with his feet. He began to move his arms forward in backwards in a pattern, rotating the sticks quickly and staring.

Nothing.

“No, no, no… c’mon!” He breathed, speeding up his pace. He couldn’t die like this! Tony couldn’t die like this! He had a family and a company! The world needed him! Trembling, he continued this action. He did it until his arms throbbed and his palms bled. He did it until… until there was a spark of orange. Then there was another that glistened and popped against the other wood. His face lit up as he dropped the sticks, leaning forward and blowing oh so gently. A soft little breath and… and then there was a flame.

A beautiful, bright orange flame that flickered like a snake’s tongue. His face lit up both because of the fire and his success. He reeled backwards, letting out a cry. “Thank you! Oh thank god! Thank you so much!” He cried, looking at the flame that slowly spawned more little flames. 

He shuffled over to Tony’s figure, slowly rolling the other onto his side so he was facing the fire. I-I got us some fire, mister Stark…” he whispered almost breathlessly. He shuffled behind him, pressing his legs against Tony’s back to hopefully provide some more warmth. Peter was in no way, shape, or form a survival expert. But he knew body heat and suit heat. 

“We’re gonna be okay… we’re gonna get out of this.” He murmured, slowly laying down with a grunt. His legs were aching, pain pounding against them. The bottom of his feet felt numb and icy cold. His hair was stiff and frozen, his once bouncy, curly soft tufts now rigid and unmoving. But that didn’t bother him. He exhaled shakily as his eyes fluttered closed, pleased with what he had done.

___

He didn’t expect to wake up to find Tony still unmoving. He didn’t expect to wake up at all, actually. And when he did wake up, it wasn’t a slow awakening. He snapped awake with a sudden shiver. Automatically, he curled in on himself and squeezed his eyes shut. His skin was tingling with icy pain, his body trembling… wait.

Peter snapped upright and frantically looked over to… okay. Okay… Tony was still breathing. He could tell by the puff of white moving away from Tony’s nose. Sucking in a shaky breath, Peter looked to the burnt, charred wood he had used for a fire. Then, he looked towards the entrance of the cave with a little hum. It was almost pink outside, so Peter assumed morning was coming. He also assumed the blizzard must’ve been over… or maybe it had stopped momentarily? Whatever the reason it wasn’t snowing, he was going to take advantage of it.

Slowly, he shifted and rolled onto his knees. His limbs were heavy and uncooperative, and every movement sent a jab of stilling iciness coursing through his body. But he forced himself to push through the pain. He clenched his jaw and looked at Tony’s unmoving figure, exhaling shakily and watching a white puff of air rise in front of his face. “Alright, mister Stark… we’re gonna go again.” 

He didn’t know why he felt the need to talk to him. He doubted Tony could hear him. He doubted Tony was… well… he shook the thought aside as he grabbed one of Tony’s arms, pulling it over his neck and slowly heaving Tony onto his back. He grunted as he pushed himself to his knees, his legs wobbling. His suit’s heater must’ve died out, which explained the cold. He just hoped it had been enough to keep Tony going for a while longer.

He bit his bottom lip, slowly stumbling out of the cave and back in the snow. He was glad it was just morning, because then the snow wouldn’t be blindingly white from the sun right away. However, the air was cold and icier than it would be. He shivered against a breeze as he drug his feet through the thick snow, pushing through the fresh layer with a strained effort.

Even with super strength, it was hard. Carrying Tony wasn’t that big of a deal. Well, it wouldn’t be if he hadn’t been exposed to elements like this. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep his mouth from going to lack and letting his teeth chatter. Every time he gave a little sniff, he felt the cold air rush up his dried nostrils. He could feel it rushing against the back of his throat when he gave a little gasp for air, making his teeth cold. His face stung with each gust of wind, and he was sure his hair was speckled with white flecks.

But he kept going.

He didn’t know why. He just forced his limbs to move towards that road. That road he supposedly saw. Maybe he had just seen it in his imagination? Maybe there was no road and he was just taking him and Tony into unavoidable doom? He looked down at his feet as he pushed through the snow, listening to it crunch and shift beneath him. It was the only thing he could hear. Aside from his labored breathing, Tony’s breath hitching, and inaudible sentence coming from— 

Wait.

He startled, pausing where he was. “Mister Stark?” He asked hopefully, craning his neck over his shoulder as far as he could. A moment later, he was being shoved forward. He couldn’t catch himself in time and suddenly he was face-first in the snow. The sudden shock sent a stab of pain coursing through his face and he reeled upwards, gasping as his body spasmed with a violent shiver.

“What the fuck?!”

He grimaced as the shout coming from Tony, raising trembling hands to his face to brush the snow aside. He could hear shifting and patting, which he assumed to be Tony patting himself down. “No, no, no… I’m dead, aren’t I? You’re dead too, underoos? Oh boy… Happy is going to get himself ripped a new one when he goes to tell your aunt. Jesus— I should’ve never come to get you. This was a—“

“No, no. Mister Stark, you and I are very well alive.”

Peter shook his head, looking over at the billionaire. He was standing and staring at him, his stance wide as if he were ready to bolt. His arms were wrapped around himself and he was shivering in the slightest. He must’ve been cold and he looked terrible. The dried blood from the fight was still over his face, leaving scabs and a mess of dark red and black. He must’ve looked bad himself, because Tony’s expression fell when he looked over.

“What the hell did you do?”

Peter slowly stood up, stumbling for a moment. “I… You passed out so I carried you to a cave. I got a little fire going a-and then… I started carrying you again this morning and yeah.” He explained, righting himself and staring at Tony’s bewildered face. “You? Twig-arms? You carried me?” He repeated before snorting. “Of course. Super-strength.” Tony brought a hand up to his face and flicked his own forehead. “How could I forget?”

“I-I think we should keep moving?” Peter suggested quietly, clearing his throat. They’d been exposed to the cold far too long for his liking. He was tired and sluggish. He almost felt warm, but he was pretty sure that wasn’t a good thing. Or maybe it was? A shiver coiled up his spine and he shook himself, rubbing his hands up and down his arms as he stared expectantly at Tony. After a moment, the older man rolled his eyes a little and began to stalk forward, brushing past Peter. “Alright. Let’s go.”

Peter blinked, staring after him with wide eyes for a moment before hurrying after and following him. Even with the extra weight gone, dragging his feet through the snow was no easier. He hadn’t been able to get warmed up entirely, and he was pretty sure he had frostbite on his feet and hands at least. Those parts of his body tingled with icy pain, dancing through his veins with the shock of electricity and the cold of ice. He wasn’t sure why he was still pushing at his point. He wasn’t sure how either.

Maybe his enhanced body was keeping him going? Enhanced healing was probably keeping most of his organs from shutting down, but that required energy… and he didn’t have much. He needed food and water, and he didn’t have that either. Sure, he could grab up a handful of snow and bring more pain to his fingers, but it would be something instead of nothing. It’d—

He stumbled, his eyes dropping as his foot caught on something. He staggered forward, his feet dragging through the snow deadweight before his knees folded and buckled. He slumped to the ground, gasping at the sudden shock of the cold and snapping his eyes open. No no… get up. He clenched his jaw, shakily pulling himself to his feet.

“You okay?”

He blinked up at Tony. Oh yeah… he was still there. He inhaled and exhaled a stuttering breath, nodding. “Yeah… keep going.” Keep going. That was all they could do or they’d die. Finding shelter further down the little mountain would be harder, but he knew the road was close. Through the wind howling in his ears and the crunch of snow, he could faintly hear the hum of a few car engines. And he knew that meant they were getting there.

And that was what pushed him on.

He forced his limbs to cooperate and blinked his eyes rapidly to keep them open. He couldn’t feel his face at this point. He was sure it was either red or paler than the snow at this point. He was sure he looked half-dead. He was sure that something was terribly wrong with his feet and fingers. His senses hissed at him faintly, a warning numbed by the drowsiness that hung onto him. He could close his eyes for just a minute and keep going…

The shock of the snow didn’t even bring a whine from him when he collapsed this time. He shivered, his body refusing to move from where he lay. He heard a muffled voice and then there was more crunching from the snow. Then there were hands grabbing his shoulders and pulling him upright. His legs felt like noodles from where he stood leaning against the other figure. His head dropped, his body no longer able to gather up enough strength to hold it up.

His arms dangled loosely at his sides as he was nudged along, his feet dragging through the snow as he was half-pulled and half-stumbled along. He knew that closing his eyes was dangerous. Peter knew that in these conditions… it was bad. But every part of his body screamed to let go. He closed his eyes again for a moment, waiting for the darkness to take him… and suddenly there was a roar. His eyes flickered open lazily and he glanced up a bit just as a blur of blue flashed. 

The road.

He almost cried when he saw it. The figure next to him began to ramble thanks like a mantra, their voice trembling as they did so. They… Tony. This was Tony. He was still here and alive. Trembling, Peter slowly slid downwards… and Tony didn’t stop him. Instead, the man slid down besides him, keeping a tight hold on him. His chest rattled as Peter lay dazedly among the snow. Everything was slowly fading out.

He heard muffled shouts and then there was nothing.

___

Opening his eyes was a slow process.

Groggy and still half-asleep, Peter forced himself to blink his eyes open. When he did open his eyes, he was met with smudges and smears or gray and black and white. Wherever he was, it was considerably dim and quiet… and warm. Warmth was the only thing he cared to register as he closed his eyes again, humming in content before opening them a moment later. He blinked a few times, waiting as everything slowly swam into focus.

He was in a hospital.

Or… no. This wasn’t a hospital. It couldn’t be. It was different, somehow. He wasn’t sure, but he just knew it was. He gave a little huff, his head lolling to the right and left as he looked around. He had an IV with what he assumed to be some sort of painkiller flowing through it. That or perhaps it was fluids for his body to use to heal. Whatever it was, he didn’t care.

“Aye, it lives.”

Peter looked over straight ahead towards the door for the room, blinking at the sight of Tony. He was wearing… really, really non-professional clothes. By that, it meant that he was wearing sweatpants and a cotton sweater. On top of that, he had some slippers on. Peter furrowed his eyebrows at his appearance and the billionaire snorted as he walked over. “Yeah, not my choice of clothes either.”

“What happened?”

Peter was surprised at how scratchy his voice sounded. He blinked furiously a few times, reaching a hand tentatively towards his throat before glancing at Tony. The older of the two pulled up a chair besides the bed Peter was laying and sat down. He folded his arms on the side of the bed, clicking his tongue.

“Well, we got to the road you were trying to get us to and this couple happened to be in the right place at the right time. You were in and out of consciousness in their car, but you were coherent enough to… sort of respond?” Tony shrugged. “I’ll explain that part later— but anyways… They took us to their house and we got warmed up. I was able to call in some help and now we’re at the Avengers compound.” 

Peter blinked a few times, nodding slowly. Tony cleared his throat a moment later, continuing. “We got the suit I basically abandoned at the top of the mountain, I gave the couple a little thank you, and we got fixed up. Got some nasty frostbite, kid.” Peter assumed that he got frostbite, but judging by Tony’s expression, it must’ve been bad. “I know you're a fan of cap and all, but trying to pull off a capsicle isn’t the way to show it.”

Peter snorted and folded his arms. “As if it was intentional…” he trailed off, his eyes widening. “Oh my god May is—“

“May is fine.” Tony cut him off. “I got a cover up story for why you’ve been taking a little nap for two days. Just said I wanted to keep you over a little longer.” He shrugged. “She seemed okay with it.” Seemed okay… yeah… alright. Peter slowly shifted, pushing himself upright into a sitting position. “Oh thank god…” he whispered, bringing his hand to his head and rubbing his eyes.

“I think I owe you a little bit of a thank you myself.” Tony cleared his throat and Peter’s head swiveled around to look at him. “I don’t think I would’ve gotten out of that situation if it weren’t for you… so, uh…” he brought a hand up to the back of his neck, his gaze sliding towards the floor. “Thanks.”

“Oh don’t hurt your ego too much, mister Stark.”

“I take back everything I just said. I would’ve rather frozen to death.”


End file.
